Cynthia Harrison
Novelist
Tag: NaNoWriMo
-
How to Write a Fast First Draft
Limit social activity online and IRL. Don’t stop everything, just cut down. Remember this is a fast draft, 50K words in a month in NaNoWriMo terms. NaNoWriMo is the best tool I’ve ever used to get a fast draft. Sure, you can do it on your own any old time, but that doesn’t always work…
-
Creating Character
I’ve done NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) before, dedicating the month of November to intense writing every day except Thanksgiving. This year, I need to kick-start my novel, working title Jane. She was Natasha until last week when I tried to pin down who she was and I got as far as she’s Jane not…
-
Rock Star
A package came from overseas. My dear friend Ali sent a stone that came directly from a mountain in Greece. It’s gorgeous! She also sent some other things from England. And it’s not even my birthday! I have so busy with NaNo, typing out 2K per day every day. So getting Ali’s gift was a bit…
-
Full Circle
Last time I “won” the famous November writing challenge to write 50.000 words in a month was 2005. I had previously published one book, a creative writing text I used in the classroom. I was also teaching college full time and writing reviews for Romantic Times magazine. Ten years later, I have published ten books. Eight…
-
Breaking The NaNo Rules
My first draft of the third Blue Lake book is finished. Took a minute to bask in the glory of getting it done today–I didn’t think it would happen but that extra hour this morning helped–and now I need to get busy with polishing up this messy first draft for my patient and kind editor.…